Please note that the headline above is from the print edition–KSH.
Vending machines in neon-splashed Tokyo have electronic eyes that evaluate customers’ skin and wrinkles to determine whether they are old enough to buy tobacco. In bathrooms at upscale Canadian bars, vending machines with flat irons enable women to defrizz their locks. In Abu Dhabi, the lobby of a luxury hotel has a vending machine that dispenses gold bars and coins at more than $1,000 an ounce.
A new breed of vending machine is proliferating around the world ”” and while the United States is coming late to the party, Dr Pepper and Baby Ruth are already feeling sidelined.
Flashy and futuristic, souped-up machines are popping up everywhere, be it the Mondrian hotel in Miami or at Macy’s in Minneapolis. They have touch screens instead of buttons, facades that glow and pulse, and technology intended to blunt vending machine rage ”” sensors that ensure that a customer’s credit card is not charged unless the chosen item has dropped. These machines are not for quarters: purchases are measured in dollar amounts that typically start at two figures and go up.
Changing consumer preferences about shopping and the high cost of operating brick-and-mortar stores are inspiring premium brands to rethink how they sell their wares. As Gower Smith, whose company, ZoomSystems, has created about 1,000 automated kiosks called ZoomShops, put it, “A ZoomShop costs less than an employee.”
What will they think of next? The “automated retail store.” Yes, I guess the term “vending machine” is so retro.
Seems sad though that it’s one more sign that more and more aspects of modern life are becoming increasingly impersonal. However, considering how bad or slow a lot of retail service actually is, I think I can understand the appeal of these fancy new dispensers.
And yes, obviously, as the article notes, “[i]A ZoomShop costs less than en employee[/i].” Great news, isn’t it, when unemployment is already so high?
David Handy+